被商学院拒绝的感受是什么样的？现身说法：哈佛、沃顿、塔克、耶鲁都对我说不

    这件惨事这么说吧，就好比他爬到一个高台跳水板上，大叫着让泳池边的人观看他表演向后翻腾三周转体四周。他在跳板上跳了几下准备开始，又跳了几下确定所有人都在看他，然后高高跃起……结果却栽到了泳池外面。

    啪嗒。

    可怜的格兰特。当然，他并非真的在尝试最高难度的跳水动作，而是在进行一次学术方面的高难度尝试：申请超一流的MBA课程。虽然他没有像跳水运动员那样，穿着Speedo站在泳池上方的高台跳板上，但他暴露得更加彻底——在互联网上，所有人都能看到格兰特的失败。

    你可能读过格兰特的博客“赐我一份录取吧”，其中详细记录了他申请顶级MBA课程的经历。其页面浏览量已经达到10万人次。内容也很不错：充满热情，生动详实，其中包括许多建议和想法，以及他自己总结的教训。阅读他的博客时，你就如同在陪着格兰特一起努力学习，参加GMAT考试，研究学校，考察校园，分析短文范例，参加面试。不能再详细了！

    但这也是格兰特遭遇惨败的原因之一。他并没有将全部精力投入到申请顶级商学院上。他还有一份全职工作，同时还在从事大量公益事业，更不用说还要花费大量时间更新博客。

    他的故事对于正在申请顶级MBA课程的所有人都很有价值。格兰特没有专注于进入商学院这个首要目标，结果付出了惨痛的代价。

    最近他在一张荒凉的火星照片下面写道：

    哈佛：拒绝，没有面试机会

    沃顿：拒绝，没有面试机会

    耶鲁：拒绝，没有面试机会

    凯洛格：拒绝

    塔克：拒绝

    我不想撒谎；但告诉大家这些结果真的很难。

    当然，正在报考MBA的人都知道，被拒绝是最糟糕的事情，但这也是常事。去年，格兰特申请的五所商学院，一共收到了超过25,400份申请，但最终被录取的人数不到3,000人。在这五所商学院中，哈佛商学院的录取率最低，为12%，耶鲁大学最高，为24%，总体来说，被这些学院录取的几率很低。去年，这五所商学院MBA课程的录取率不足18%。

    (Poets&Quants) — It was as if he’d climbed up on a high diving board, shouted down to everyone on the pool deck to watch him perform a triple back flip with four twists, bounced a few times to prepare for launch, bounced a few more times to make sure everyone was looking, propelled himself into the air … and missed the pool completely.

    Splat.

    Poor Grant. He wasn’t attempting the world’s most difficult dive, but its academic equivalent instead: applying to an ultra-elite MBA program. And while he wasn’t wearing a Speedo on a high board over a pool, he was even more exposed—Grant was standing in the middle of the Internet for all to see.

    You may have read his blog, Grant Me Admission, in which he chronicles his quest for a top-tier MBA. It’s received nearly 100,000 page views. And it’s pretty good: enthusiastic, lively, clearly written, full of tips and ideas and lessons learned. Read it, and you’re right there with Grant as he studies for and takes the GMAT, researches schools, visits campuses, analyzes sample essays, and gets interviews. It’s incredibly detailed.

    Which is part of the reason Grant went splat. He wasn’t just applying to top B-schools. He was also working full time, and doing a lot of nonprofit work, plus putting in hours and hours on his blog.

    。

    His story holds a valuable lesson for anyone applying to top MBA programs. Grant failed to focus on Goal No. 1, getting admitted to business school, and he paid a painful price.

    As he writes on a recent post, below a photo of a bleak Martian landscape:

    Harvard: Dinged without an interview

    Wharton: Dinged without an interview

    Yale: Dinged without an interview

    Kellogg: Dinged

    Tuck: Dinged

    I’m not going to lie; it is incredibly hard for me to share these results.

    Of course, as anyone who plays this game knows, rejection is a person’s worst nightmare—but it is also the norm. Last year, the five schools on Grant’s target list received more than 25,400 applications for less than 3,000 available spots. With acceptance rates that range from a low of 12% for Harvard to a high of 24% for Yale, the odds of getting into one of these schools are against you. Overall, not much more than 18% of the applicants to these five MBA programs was accepted last year.